Praising God

style=width:300px;height:276px;float:right;" >I BEGAN last month to reflect on Saint Anthony’s use of the Sunday Introit chants in his commentaries on the Gospels, and I will continue with this theme. These chants are for the most part still in use on the Sundays for which they were appointed in Anthony’s day, or at least on a nearby Sunday. For instance, the Introit Anthony gives for the second Sunday after Christmas is now used in the week after the Baptism of the Lord: “On a throne exalted I beheld, and lo, a Man sitting, whom a legion of Angels worship, singing together: behold, his rule and governance endureth in all ages.”



This chant, says our Saint, is reminiscent of that found in the Apocalypse (the Book of Revelation), where Saint John sees in vision a throne in heaven on which a brilliant and majestic figure sits, surrounded by twenty-four other thrones on which sit priestly figures, who prostrate themselves and offer praises to the One Enthroned, the King of kings and Lord of lords.





Finding Jesus





Interestingly, Anthony sees this vision foreshadowed in an incident we remember during the Christmas-Epiphany season, namely the finding of the boy Jesus by Mary and Joseph, sitting in the Temple surrounded by the wise men of Israel, who marvel at His wisdom. This is a good example of Anthony’s ‘bifocal’ or ‘stereoscopic’ vision: the majestic heavenly King is the boy who sat in the Temple, and the sacred humanity – whether glorified or in the humility of mortal life – is the manifestation of the Divine Wisdom itself. In each case Christ is in the centre, while representatives of human authority are arranged around him, praising or marvelling at his authority.



An important truth is depicted here: we can only reach God through Christ, through God-Who-Has-Become-Incarnate. We can never by-pass Jesus Christ, or see Him as just one among many human teachers. God has chosen to reveal Himself in the Humanity of Jesus, who is (in Saint Paul’s words) “the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation.”





All people





On the Sunday after Epiphany (the second Sunday of Ordinary Time now) the Introit was “All the earth shall worship thee, O God, and sing of thee: they shall sing praise to thy name, O Most Highest.” The Gospel for the Sunday was that of the marriage-feast at Cana. Anthony points out that “all the earth” includes north, south, east and west. East, south and west suggest the passage of the sun throughout the day, from its rising, through noon-tide to its setting. This in turn suggests the progress of the soul from the time it begins its spiritual journey until it reaches its perfection and rest in heaven. The remaining direction, north, region of storms and cold, suggests to Anthony the lives of many good ordinary folk, living in the world and subject to many trials, but holding on to the faith in all circumstances. All types of humanity, married or unmarried, rich or poor, beginners or advanced, can join in the hymn of praise to God, which is the ‘marriage-song’ of the union between God and us, which is made possible through the Incarnation. Once again, we see that Christ is central to God’s plan for the world.





Jesus as Emmanuel





The third Introit to be considered (which was sung on all the remaining Sundays after Epiphany, and is now optional on the third Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C) is “All ye angels of God, fall down and worship before him: Sion heard, and was exceeding joyful, and the daughters of Juda were glad.” Once again the theme is the praise of God, in heaven by the angels and on earth by the Church, represented as Sion and the daughters of Juda. The Gospel was that of the healing of the centurion’s servant, which led our Lord to marvel at the faith of a Gentile, a heathen foreigner, so great that it put Israel to shame. Anthony sees again the theme of universality – all the nations – as well as the identification of the simple Jewish healer with the object of the angels’ worship.



During the weeks of January, whichever liturgical cycle of readings we are in, we are in a time of transition between the birth of our Lord and His passion and death (the theme of Lent). The great feast of the Epiphany, or Manifestation, of Christ sets the tone. Jesus was manifested even as an adolescent boy to the Masters of Israel. The Wedding at Cana, as Saint John tells us, marked the beginning of the signs He did, His public manifestation. From that point on, our Lord embarked on His ministry of teaching and healing, which enabled those with eyes to see and ears to hear to recognise that God was at work among them.



The Christmas mystery invites us to recognise Jesus as ‘Emmanuel’, ‘God-With-Us’. We must always do justice both to the Divinity and the humanity of Christ, never emphasising one at the expense of the other. Saint Anthony helps us to do this by his method of ‘concordance’, allowing one passage of Scripture to illuminate another.





Worship





The over-arching theme of the three Introits we have been considering is worship, or adoration. The angels worship the One who sits on the throne; all the earth is invited to join in this worship; the Church triumphant and on pilgrimage is part of this chorus of worship. The Latin adoro and the English worship have slightly different overtones. Ad-oro suggests making a request to someone, and only later to show reverence towards someone. Worship is ‘worth-ship’, the recognition of someone’s worth. In the case of God, and of Christ, it is the recognition of His supreme dignity and power that underlies our requests, and moves us to praise Him.



With Mary, let our souls magnify the Lord, and let our spirits rejoice in God our Saviour. With the angels and all the saints let us cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts! Heaven and earth are full of his glory!”